Perth Glory football director Stan Lazaridis revealed EFL Championship side QPR have signed young gun Jaylan Pearman.
Pearman has been a shining light amid a difficult season for the Glory, the 18-year-old academy graduate emerging as one of the most exciting players in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
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The teenage sensation has scored one goal in six games across his debut season for Perth.
Now, retired Socceroo Lazaridis confirmed Pearman is set to join fellow Aussie and Glory product Daniel Bennie at QPR in England.
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“We’re doing something right if four or five of our young boys are getting picked for the Socceroos,” Lazaridis said on the latest episode of Glory Stories.
“You have Jaylan Pearman now that QPR have signed. The club stands to make $350-400,000 from a player who’s played five matches.
“Andriano Lebib, there’s clubs circling around him.
“Where we’re suffering some pain, there are so many good things that are happening that the players are going to be much better for next season.
“If we get our recruitment right, particularly for next season, some real good first XI, experienced players… I want us competing in that top six.”
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In a wide-ranging interview lasting 40 minutes, Lazaridis covered a number of subjects, including Perth’s recruitment.
A busy mid-season transfer window concluded with the second-bottom Glory signing Tomislav Mrcela, Lachie Wales, Yuto Misao, Takuya Okamoto, Patrick Wood (on loan from Sydney FC), Tass Mourdoukoutas and Luke Amos (Hibernian).
Perth also farewelled Mustafa Amini, Cristian Caiceido, Luis Canga, Luke Bodnar, Jacob Muir, Jarrod Carluccio and Abdul Faisal.
An A-Leagues champion with Western United before moving to South Korea, Wales returned to Australia in January but Lazaridis revealed he wanted the attacker at the start of the season.
Wales was just one of a number of players the Glory were looking at, according to the Aussie great.
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“Lachie Wales is a player I targeted when I first came in but we simply couldn’t get him at the start of the season,” said Lazaridis.
“I went for Dylan Pierias (now at Adelaide United), I went for Eli Adams (Newcastle Jets),(Hiroshi) Ibusuki (now at Western United).
“I had this dream pairing of Ibusuki and Adam Taggart. Unfortunately we had to sacrifice that one. That one hurt actually, that one really hurt me because I think the fans would’ve loved him.”
Lazaridis also reflected on the unsuccessful stints of foreign duo Caiceido and Luis Canga.
Caicedo and Canga arrived just prior to the season but both struggled in Perth colours, ultimately leaving HBF Park by mutual termination during the January transfer window.
Lazaridis said the pair’s arrival was a knock-on effect of Colombian defender Cristian Devenish reneging on a move to Perth.
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“We wanted one key defender. That’s what the brief was,” he said. “We earmarked a player named Cristian Devenish which I think all the fans know about now.
“That was a four-month process in getting him. It meant we ignored everyone else because we simply didn’t have any budget for anyone else. He was expensive but was worth. We’re talking about a player that’s playing regularly in the Portuguese first division.
“He agreed to sign and he signed. Ten days before the season, he says he signed for a Portuguese first-division side.
“Then we’re like, who do we get? When you’re in that time frame and a window coming, finding a centre-half is very difficult. We did reach out to Tommy Mrcela but Tommy at that time had agreed to sign for a team in Croatia but then he got let down right on deadline day.
“Then we rolled the dice with Luis Canga and Cristian Caicedo. They basically came along. The agent said basically said just take him because they felt bad and they genuinely did because it was the player who reneged at the club last minute.
“They said if it doesn’t work out in four to five months, just let the boys come back. We just thought okay, we looked at the CV, got them analysed. The coaches went through Luis and the guy’s played for Ecuador, won titles and his CV was pretty good.
“But they just didn’t work. They didn’t settle, they didn’t come in the best shape as well. We had to basically get them to the window of when we could release them and look to strengthen. That really hurt us.”
